Dubai’s Eat App raises $5m Series B round

Dubai-headquartered Eat App has raised a $5m Series B funding round, to embolden its regional presence and scale its workforce, it announced on Monday.

The round, co-lead by 500 Startups and Riyadh-based Derayah VC, also recorded participation from Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), FA Holdings, and several international VC’s and regional angel investors, a statement said.

Besides augmenting its sales and engineering teams and growing regionally, especially in Saudi Arabia, Eat App will also invest in R&D, unique IP and technology.

Eat App’s restaurant reservation platform currently powers over 1000 restaurants, hospitality groups and hotels, and has processed over 10 million diners to date.

Eat App has also developed a partnership network, fueling reservations for consumer facing platforms such as Google, TripAdvisor, Zomato and Time Out, among others.

In 2019, Eat App has generated over $32m in revenue for its restaurant partners, the statement said.

“The Saudi restaurant sector has witnessed massive growth over the last years, with 8 per cent CAGR and total sales exceeding SAR 80bn,” said Faris AlRashed Alhumaid, founder of Oqal Group and partner at Derayah VC.

“In addition, restaurants employ 30 per cent of the Saudi workforce, which is the largest employment sector in the country.”

“Globally, the food tech space has received impressive funding and is growing at an incredible pace,” said David Feuillard, Eat App’s co-founder and COO.

“In the past 12 months, Amazon has entered the space with its investment in SevenRooms and Dubai’s Kitopi has raised $60m in series B funding. It’s a great time to be taking part in the paradigm shift happening currently in the food tech space.”